BP: Stardust Haiku Journal, Issue #46

The October Stardust Haiku journal, edited by Valentina Ranaldi-Adams, was published this week. It is the forty-sixth issue of this online publication; Valentina publishes it monthly, and this pedometer geek poet feels fortunate to be included in the global community of haiku poets. This month the global community includes poets from India, Ghana, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Nigeria, Italy, Pakistan, Australia, and the United States of America. My haiku is as follows:

Canada geese

glean the fields

harvest moon

~Nancy Brady, 2020

All the haiku can be found at http://www.stardusthaiku.blogspot.com, and there are some excellent haiku to be found there including the In the Starlight haiku by Marilyn Ashbaugh.

Submissions are accepted monthly from the first to the fourteenth of the month; check out all the submission guidelines there.

BP: Haiku Dialogue’s Opposites Attract (junior/senior)

On Wednesdays, the Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue column is published. The ongoing series, which is edited by K.J. Munro, is all about opposites right now. The column contains many haiku, some with commentary, on the prompt of junior/senior. Once again, this pedometer geek poet feels fortunate to have had one haiku picked for the column. It is as follows:

family reunion…
patriarch still called
Junior

~Nancy Brady, 2020

Check out all the haiku on the subject at http://www.thehaikufoundation.org on the Troutswirl blog. Next week’s prompt is sharp/blunt, and submissions through midnight PST tonight are being accepted.

BP–Haiku Dialogue: Opposites Attract (Here/There)

This week’s Haiku Dialogue column, Opposites Attract, was based on the prompt of here and there. K.J. Munro is the editor for this series, and this pedometer geek was fortunate enough to have her choose one of the ones I submitted. It is as follows:

politics…
the distance between
our galaxy and the next

~Nancy Brady, 2020

Check out all the haiku on this theme at http://www.thehaikufoundation.org or consider submitting one or two haiku to next week’s theme of junior/senior by midnight September 26.

On a different note, this pedometer geek is including a recent digital photograph, which was taken at Old Woman Creek Estuary Research Center (it is National Estuary Week after all).

Carrot Ranch: Two Mothers, Two Mice (BOTS)

This week over at Carrot Ranch, the prompt was to write a story about mice in 99 words (no more, no less). This pedometer geek has not written many 99-word stories lately, missing deadline after deadline. To be honest, this writer just didn’t feel like writing, and by the time, inspiration hit, the week was over. Finally, decided to give it a go since this pedometer geek has never really had an issue with mice. Well once, but even then, the house mouse was not harmed. Here is the story:

Two Mothers, Two Mice, a Similar Story

In a newly constructed house, a mother sat up late feeding her newborn daughter. Into the quiet crept a mouse. With eyes bright, the mouse watched the mother and daughter. The pattern repeated itself night after night until the mouse disappeared.

Thirty years later, in a newly constructed condominium, a mother sat up late breastfeeding her newborn son. It was quiet, and a mouse ran across the floor. The motion caught the mother’s eye, but she dismissed it as tiredness. The following night she saw the mouse running away. Eventually, the mouse ventured out, was caught, and released outside.  

Nancy Brady, 2020

This is based on a true story about my mother’s experience of the nightly experience with a mouse who sat up with her and my younger sister. My father was away because he was working a strike at the telephone company. As she always said, “Live mice didn’t bother her, but seeing a dead one did.”

To read all the 99-word stories, check out http://www.carrotranch.com, or even write a few 99-word stories (no more, no less).

BP: Haiku Dialogue–Opposites Attract (Loud/Quiet)

This week’s Haiku Foundation’s column, Haiku Dialogue, continued the theme of opposites attract. Loud and/or quiet prevailed throughout the many haiku on the subject. From whispers to shouts to everything in between, there was variety which included one of this pedometer geek’s haiku. It is as follows:

17-year cicadas…

the buzzing

of tinnitus

~Nancy Brady, 2020

Check out all the haiku chosen by the editor, K.J. Munro, at http://www.thehaikufoundation.org under the Troutswirl page labelled Haiku Dialogue. Next week’s prompt continues the theme with here/there, and submissions are being accepted through midnight Saturday September 19 (PST).

BP: Haiku Dialogue (Opposites Attract-above/below)

This week’s Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue column, edited by K.J. Munro, continues the theme of Opposites Attract. Above and below were the prompts, and there were many entries showing the many sides of them. Again, this pedometer geek poet was fortunate enough to have one of the haiku submitted accepted for the column. It is as follows:

full moon…

the one above

its lake reflection

~Nancy Brady, 2020

There are so many others to check out at http://www.thehaikufoundation.org. There are also some haiku that K.J. Munro singled out for comment. Next week’s prompt is loud/quiet, and 1 or 2 original unpublished haiku can be submitted up until the deadline of midnight, Pacific Daylight Savings Time on Saturday September 12, 2020.

BP: Haiku Dialogue (Opposites Attract, Night/Day)

This week the Haiku Foundation’s weekly column, Haiku Dialogue edited by K.J. Munro, was a continuation of the theme that opposites attract. The prompt was night/day, and according to K.J. it had one of the highest number of submissions she had ever seen. While she commented on a few of them, she kept her remarks relatively short to allow more entries. This pedometer geek was pleased that she chose to publish one of my haiku. It was a haiku that was written a couple years ago, and it is as follows:

solar eclipse…

crescent moon shadows

on the pavement

~Nancy Brady, 2020

To read all the haiku with the theme day/night, check out http://www.thehaikufoundation.org on the Troutswirl page under Haiku Dialogue. If interested in submitting a haiku or two for next week’s prompt on above/below, that must be done by midnight Saturday September 5.

BP: Indian Kukai #33 (Mannequin)

This pedometer geek often participates in the Indian kukai. A kukai is an anonymously submitted contest of haiku by haiku poets from all over the world and then voted on by the other poets. There is always a theme or prompt. Each poet who enters must choose their top three preferred haiku from those haiku that have been entered. The poet cannot vote for their own though, and if the poet doesn’t take the time and energy to vote at all, those votes from other poets are null and void.

This kukai had over a hundred haiku from which to choose on the theme of mannequin. It is never easy to go through all the haiku and choose those haiku that best appeal to this pedometer geek as there are always some really great poems to choose from. By reading all the various haiku on a particular subject has helped me improve my poetry.

Sometimes my haiku receives no votes; sometimes my haiku receives a few points, but this time, this pedometer geek poet received enough votes to place fifth in the kukai. My haiku is as follows:

mannequin…

the desire to be

a real boy

~Nancy Brady, 2020

BP: Haiku Dialogue: Big/Little

The Haiku Foundation’s weekly column, Haiku Dialogue, has switched topics to Opposites Attract. This week’s topic was big/little, and the editor, K.J. Munro, selected one of mine. It is as follows:

chance meeting…

his childhood crush

no longer little

~Nancy Brady, 2020

See all of the selected haiku at http://www.thehaikufoundation.org; some of them with commentary by K.J. Next week’s topic is day/night and haiku can be submitted up until midnight Saturday.

Update: On the Bindweed Battle front, my husband and I are making progress. Each day, there are fewer bindweed plants poking their leaves above ground, and the roots below have become deeper and thicker. We may not totally annihilate them, but we have made great progress. Now, to tackle the creeping Charlie.

 

BP: Haiku Dialogue–Opposites Attract

A new theme at the Haiku Foundation’s weekly column, Haiku Dialogue, started last week.  K.J. Munro, the editor, chose the theme of Opposites Attract, beginning with Open and Close. This pedometer geek was fortunate to have K.J. select one of my haiku for inclusion. It is as follows:

coronavirus

reopening restaurants

only to close them down

~Nancy Brady, 2020

To read all of the haiku on the theme of Open/Close including the editor’s commentary on a few of the haiku she chose, check out http://www.thehaikufoundation.org.

On a similar vein, the pedometer geek has been taking quite a few photographs during the pandemic. This past week I paired a haiku, which was published in Stardust Haiku in April 2017, with a photo I took several days ago.

Photo and haiku by Nancy Brady, 2020